


Cherry Wine (Intricate Surprise)

by NoahK



Category: Carmilla (Web Series)
Genre: F/F
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-01-13
Updated: 2015-01-13
Packaged: 2018-03-07 11:13:52
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,750
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3172346
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/NoahK/pseuds/NoahK
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>“She desperately wanted to know what was on the younger girl’s list but she didn’t understand why. Maybe just maybe Carmilla wanted to be the person to make every single thing on that list actually happen but she wasn’t ready to admit that to herself.”</p>
            </blockquote>





	Cherry Wine (Intricate Surprise)

**Author's Note:**

> #CreampuffWeek DAY THREE/Jan. 13  
> Prompt: Ocean
> 
> See end for links to interact/be where these two end up.

Carmilla walked into their room to see Laura leaning over a piece of paper in deep thought. She knew this because Laura seemed tense and was biting on the end of her pen which she only did when she was thinking of something to write. The older girl pulled out a novel she wanted to reread and collapsed onto the bed silently debating with herself if she actually wanted to ask.

“Cupcake, what are you doing?” Carmilla asked caving in to her curiosity.

“You’re going to think it’s stupid,” Laura replied without even looking up from the piece of paper.

“Alright, I promise I won’t think it’s stupid if you tell me,” Carmilla said even though it was a high possibility. She would at least pretend it wasn’t stupid for the sake of getting to know what Laura was concentrating so heavily on.

“It’s kind of a list of things I want to do in the new year. Not really a New Year’s Resolution, just things I want to see if I can do this year,” Laura clarified to make it seem a little less ridiculous.

“That’s really not stupid. It’s good to have goals for the year,” Carmilla replied honestly taking a moment to glance over at the younger girl who was now looking at her in disbelief. Clearly Laura was expecting some snarky comment from the broody vampire. “What’s on your list?”

“Um. That’s a secret.”

Carmilla raised an eyebrow at the younger girl who then jotted down something quickly and folded the list to put it away. She rolled her eyes in response to Laura hiding the list before turning back to her novel and continuing to read.

/ /

Carmilla slipped back into the room at 4 am after being gone for several hours. Laura was still up when she left but of course was out cold now. Carmilla had spent the past couple hours sitting on top of the philosophy building watching the stars and trying not to be so caught up in the idea of Laura’s list. She desperately wanted to know what was on the younger girl’s list but she didn’t understand why. Maybe just maybe Carmilla wanted to be the person to make every single thing on that list actually happen but she wasn’t ready to admit that to herself.

And yet here she is standing in their room desperately trying to find the list while making sure to be as quiet as possible. If Laura woke up to find Carmilla looking for her list that she obviously didn’t want Carmilla to see she was going to be one tiny ball of angry. Luckily for her she did pay some attention to where Laura was trying to hide the list so she at least knew it was on this side of the room. Unless Laura moved it after she left the room. Carmilla didn’t even think about that possibility.

“Fuck, where is it,” Carmilla mumbled to herself under her breath. She immediately chastised herself in her head for speaking out loud. Laura usually is a deep sleeper but you can never be too careful.

Finally after a good 45 minutes of looking under and in every possible thing on this side of the room she was able to find the list folded up and placed inside a dvd case. _Of course. The one place she would never even think to check._ Carmilla did a little cheery dance to herself before rolling her eyes at her own excitement. It was a good thing Laura was asleep because she would be absolutely mortified if the younger girl had seen her excitement and ridiculous dancing.

Carmilla stood on Laura’s side of the room reading the list in the pitch black dark of their room. It was a good thing that she was able to somewhat see in the dark. It wasn’t perfect but it was efficient enough to be able to see general things and read this list.

_-tell Dad_

_-pass the semester_

_-ask Carm about summer plans_

_-try to travel this summer (New York? London?)_

_-get a camera, document everything notable_

_-music festival_

_-see something that blows your mind_

_-see the ocean_

__

Although the list was short Carmilla knew there was more that Laura would want to do and more that she could have written but didn’t because Carmilla interrupted her. She folded the paper back up carefully once she was sure she would remember the entire list before putting it back in the dvd case exactly how she found it. Carmilla put the dvd case back in it’s spot before moving over to the window on the other side of the room. She leaned against the window sill and gazed up at the stars adoringly as all the plans began to formulate in her head.

/ /

Three weeks later Laura returned to an empty room to find a wrapped box sitting on the edge of Carmilla’s bed. It may have been on the broody vampire’s bed but something about it called to her right away. She walked over to it eyeing it suspiciously because why is there a present on her bed? It was long after any special occasion that she could think of and honestly Carmilla didn’t have many friends so there wasn’t much of a chance that it was actually for Carmilla. Laura was about to pick up the box when the door swung open.

“What are you doing here? Don’t you have class?” Carmilla asked with a cold tone behind her words.

“Oh, it got cancelled,” Laura said stumbling away from the vampires bed and collapsing into the computer chair on the way.

Carmilla looked at the younger girl and then her gaze switched to the box that she left on her bed thinking that Laura wouldn’t be back in the room any time soon. She’d been slipping up a lot lately and giving away much more than she meant to but to her defense she was always really careful it’s just that the least predictable thing would happen. Like Laura’s class getting cancelled. Luckily though the younger girl was usually extraordinarily oblivious so Carmilla could get away with some of these slip ups.

Laura turned towards her computer and began to look through her emails when Carmilla finally took the present and slid it under her bed. She knew that Laura saw it and was sincerely hoping that Laura would just let it go. For a split second she forgot just how snoopy Laura is.

“What was that?” Laura asked nonchalantly without looking away from her computer screen.

“Oh, just some present Perry brought over. LaFontaine has apparently been searching all over for it so Perry brought it over here for one of us to hold onto so they don’t ruin the surprise,” Carmilla said so smoothly that she almost convinced herself.

“Sounds like them,” Laura laughed.

Carmilla made a mental note to talk to Perry later and make sure that if Laura decided to snoop into it further that she knew to cover for her and just roll with it. All in all this plan was becoming more and more complicated as the days went on.

/ /

A little over two weeks after the present incident and it was Valentine’s day. The first one that both Laura and Carmilla actually had plans, in fact. Luckily for Carmilla the younger girl believed the whole Perry’s present for LaF thing and never even questioned the other girl about it. But unfortunately for her Perry couldn’t lie about it so she actually made Carmilla hide LaFontaine’s actual present so there was truth to what she would tell Laura had she approached her. Which she hadn’t. So here Carmilla was waiting for Perry to come over and take this overly decorated present away from her so she didn’t have to look at it anymore. It was covered in heart wrapping paper with three different colored ribbons and bows on it. And was disgustingly lovey dovey in Carmilla’s opinion.

Perry strolled into the room without knocking with multiple cheesy red balloons trailing close behind her. Carmilla handed the present to her and watched as she wrapped the balloons’ ribbons around the present promptly tying them around the box. Carmilla rolled her eyes but made no snarky comment towards Perry or LaFontaine. Whatever was going on between them was between them and whatever lovey dovey decorating they thought was fitting for the occasion was up to them. As ridiculous as it was Carmilla wasn’t going to ruin Valentine’s day for them. Which is so unlike her.

After Perry left Carmilla collapsed onto her bed taking the yellow pillow with her. She figured she had a good two hours before Laura would come back to the room so why not take a quick nap?

When Laura barreled into the room not even an hour later Carmilla was mid nap and turned over mumbling angrily at her disturbed sleep. Laura just huffed in response and left the vampire alone. She threw her bag to the ground annoyed at her professor for not showing up to class because they didn’t even bother to inform the students that the class was cancelled. So everyone sat around the classroom for half an hour before everyone gave up on the professor coming in late and just left. Laura found it aggravating because one it was Friday and two it was Valentine’s day. The least the professor could have done was told the students of the cancellation.

She stood in the midst of her room before deciding that maybe she should join Carmilla in taking a nap. Laura shrugged to herself before climbing over the vampire and cuddling into her side to join in on her nap.

/ /

Carmilla opened her eyes slowly recognizing a familiar weight on her stomach and looking over at Laura in response. Immediately the vampire realized two things. One that Laura was absolutely adorable when she was sleeping and two, it was late. Late enough that the room was almost entirely dark and she wondered just how they both slept for more than 5 hours in the middle of the day.

“Hey, Laura,” Carmilla husked nudging the younger girl.

“Hmm?” Laura mumbled back without opening her eyes but tightening her grip around Carmilla’s waist.

“You’re adorable when you sleep so I hate to be the one to bother you but we overslept,” Carmilla admitted quietly. She knew the younger girl wasn’t going to like the sound of that after all she had made the plans for the evening.

“What?” Laura asked incredulously immediately shooting up from her position and looking at the clock placed on the other side of the room. “No, no, no!”

“It’s okay, cupcake,” Carmilla said trying to soothe the younger girl. “We can just stay in and watch some movies into the early morning.”

“But we were supposed to go to dinner and a movie,” Laura whimpered putting on the biggest pout Carmilla had ever seen.

“Oh, Laura, don’t do that,” Carmilla sighed picking herself up and pulling Laura over to her. Carmilla could feel Laura still pouting against her neck and leaned against her head. “Come on, we can still salvage the night.”

“How?”

“We can run to the store and get a bunch of snack foods and then build a massive fort in here. Then we can bust out some of your favorite movies or even watch some lame new movies that have come out recently. And we can also bust out an impressively aged bottle of champagne to split between the two of us,” Carmilla offered thoughtfully. Now that she’s vocalizing it, it actually sounds a lot better than what was originally planned. Although it would’ve been nice to go out to some fancy restaurant it’d be even better to stay in with the person that mattered most and have a wonderful night to themselves.

“You know what, I really like that idea, Carm,” Laura mumbled into her neck before placing a kiss there. “Let’s go.”

Laura lifted her head from where it was resting but before she could get off the bed Carmilla pulled her in for a quick kiss. Carmilla got up and offered her hand to Laura to help her get up.

“Ready?”

“Ready,” Laura replied giddily taking Carmilla’s hand.

/ /

“Hey, Carm? What are these?” Laura asked holding in her hand an envelope with plane illustrations on it. Carmilla saw them almost immediately and began to panic.

“Oh, they must be my tickets,” Carmilla said casually as Laura handed the envelope over to her.

“For what?”

“I have to go to London for business for a couple days in May,” Carmilla said spitting out the lie she never thought would actually have to be used.

“Business?’ Laura asked immediately curious.

“Yeah. It’s some philosophy thing I was invited to. No big deal,” Carmilla uttered nonchalantly. That part wasn’t entirely false. She was invited to attend but she didn’t actually plan to attend for very logical reasons.

“Not a big deal? That seems like a big deal,” Laura encouraged from where she sat in front of the computer.

“Not really,” Carmilla insisted.

“No, come on. It is too. You just don’t want to admit it,” Laura insisted yet again. Carmilla decided it was best if she just didn’t answer the younger girl. “See, I’m right.”

Carmilla was just going to have to let the younger girl have this one. She couldn’t let Laura find out what was actually in the envelope. It would ruin her months of hard work that she went to extraordinary lengths for. She already had so many people lying and covering for her she couldn’t add this onto the list as well.

“Fine. Would you like to celebrate?” Carmilla asked giving in.

“Can we?” Laura asked in disbelief. Carmilla nodded in response but before she could speak Laura cut her off. “Something small, I know. It’ll just be the two of us and then LaF and Perry.”

“Okay,” Carmilla replied causing a squeal from the younger girl as she took out her phone to presumably text the ginger twins.

/ /

It was finally the day that Carmilla had been waiting for for three months and she couldn’t be more excited. In fact, she was so excited that she made sure to sleep when Laura did and was coincidentally awake before 9 am. She had already gotten up and made the younger girl hot chocolate as well as pouring herself a glass of blood. Carmilla put both on the headboard to the bed for leaning down over the younger girl. She rubbed her nose gently to Laura’s before kissing her nose softly.

“Cupcake, wake up,” Carmilla said just above a whisper.

“Why?’ Laura asked without moving.

“We’re going on an adventure today,” Carmilla replied quietly. Laura shot up immediately and looked at Carmilla like she had two heads. “What?”

“Who are you and what have you done with my broody gay Carmilla?” Laura asked starting at the vampire standing before her. Carmilla laughed as she handed the tardis mug to the younger girl and took a seat on the bed with her glass of blood.

“Still here.”

“Okay but really why did you wake me?” Laura asked sure that there was in fact another reason.

“I told you we’re going on an adventure. And before you even ask, yes I am serious,” Carmilla said looking Laura right in the eyes so she knew it was the honest truth.

“But, wh-”

“Sweetheart, stop asking so many questions and just go with it, okay?”

“Fine,” Laura said defeatedly. She took a sip of the hot chocolate and hummed in approval. It was some particularly good hot chocolate that much she could admit. She was still skeptical of the vampire and whatever was going on. All of this was very unlike Carmilla and she didn’t know what to think of it.

By 10 am Carmilla is pushing a hesitant Laura out the door while carrying a small duffel bag. Which is starting to bug Laura because why does she need that bag and what is even in it? Carmilla refuses to tell her and just brings her out to the car that she apparently rented for the weekend. Which just makes Laura all the more suspicious and hesitant.

“Come on, creampuff. We need to get on the road,” Carmilla says putting the duffel into the backseat of the car. She turns to Laura and raises her eyebrows at her.

“Fine but only if you tell me where we’re going,” Laura demands.

“Fine, get in,” Carmilla says as Laura opens the passenger door and climbs in.

“So where are we going?” Laura asks not even 2 minutes later.

“On an adventure.”

“Hey, you said you’d tell me,” Laura whines.

“I just did, cupcake. We’re on an adventure now stop asking questions and sit back and enjoy the ride,” Carmilla says as she turns onto the highway.

“Fine,” Laura huffs but leans back in the chair anyway after turning on the radio and turning the volume up a considerable amount. Carmilla rolls her eyes but leaves the music on to give Laura something to distract herself.

/ /

“Carm, where the hell are we going?” Laura asks after an hour of driving.

“Somewhere special, Laura,” Carmilla said simply as she looked in her mirrors before she switched lanes safely.

“Okay, fine clearly you’re not going to tell me. But can you at least tell me how long it’s going to be?” Laura asked defeated yet again.

“About another 3 hours maybe a little longer,” Carmilla said.

“Holy shit,” Laura breathed out. “So we’re leaving Austria, then.”

“Indeed we are,” Carmilla confirmed.

“I don’t have my passport with me,” Laura says matter-of-factly.

“I have it.”

“Oh,” Laura breathes out. Of course Carmilla has seemed to think of everything. She looks over the vampire who is rather concentrated on driving and gives her a slight smile. Although she hates not knowing where they are going she has to give Carmilla credit for thinking of literally everything and being this prepared. It was rather impressive and it made Laura incredibly happy because she did this for her. Or at least she thinks Carmilla did it for her.

/ /

It was almost 4 hours into the drive when Laura started to get really antsy. Carmilla can’t blame her for it either. They’ve been on the road for 4 hours and the younger girl has no idea where they’re going. Although she does know that they are now in Croatia but where it’s leading from there she has absolutely no idea. Laura doesn’t really have a reason to be nervous it’s Carmilla that is now starting to get nervous. All the months and hours and hours of preparation are finally coming to an end. Laura is finally going to know all about everything she’s been dedicating her time to for the past couple months. It made Carmilla really nervous. She may be a centuries old bad ass but this is something completely new to her. She just hopes that Laura likes it and is just as enthralled with the idea as she is.

“Where are we?” Laura asks when Carmilla pulls over on the side of some street in Croatia. Carmilla parks the car before answering.

“Rijeka, Croatia. Come on,” Carmilla said before reaching into the back to grab the duffle before climbing out of the car. Laura follows after a moments hesitation. Both of the girls stand on the sidewalk stretching for a little while after their long ride. Carmilla smiles at the younger girl throwing the strap of the bag over her shoulder and taking Laura’s hand lacing their fingers together as they began to walk. Carmilla knew relatively where she was going not because she had been here before but because she spent hours memorizing the images on Google maps so she knew where to go.

“So what exactly sparked this adventure, Carm?” Laura asked nudging the vampire with her shoulder.

“You’ll see,” she responded simply as they continued their walk now on a pedestrian only street. Luckily Carmilla picked somewhere less obvious where Laura wouldn’t know exactly what they were here for until they were standing right in front of it. She had the crowded streets and beautiful architecture to thank for that.

Carmilla saw the opening before them. The buildings ended and opened up to a big open space with trees lining the waterfront and a bridge not too far away. There was a car park on the opposite side of the bridge but it was still stunning. When they looked off to their left there were mountains and many buildings scattered on them. Lining the edge of the street down in the water were loads of boats tied down one after another after another. The water reflected the clouds in the sky and it was utterly beautiful. Carmilla led the younger girl onto the beautifully constructed bridge and stopped in the middle. The vampire leaned against the authentic wooden railing and took in the sights before her. It was utterly beautiful. Even more than Google maps had showed. It barely even captured the actual beauty of it.

Laura gasped at the sight of it. It was one of the most beautiful scenes she’s ever been to. From this angle the water reflected not just the clouds but also the trees. It was Laura’s newest favorite scene. The two girls stood there taking in the scene for another 10 minutes before either of them spoke.

“Do you want to go sit on one of those benches?” Carmilla asked finally turning to look at Laura donning the most stunning smile she’d ever seen.

“Yeah, sure,” Laura whispered back taking Carmilla’s hand again as she led them to one of the empty benches under the line of trees. Even from this angle it was beautiful.

“Why’d you take me here?” Laura asked finally.

“To show you the ocean,” Carmilla replied softly looking out to the water.

“This is the ocean?”

“Part of it. It leads off down that way,” Carmilla says pointing to the right. “This is the part I was able to show you. Bringing you to a beach is going to have to wait until the summer but for now this is close enough.”

“Carm,” Laura said softly squeezing her hand to get the vampire to look at her. “I love it. I love you.”

“I love you, too,” Carmilla whispered with possibly the biggest most genuine smile Laura had ever seen on the girls face. Laura leaned forward and kissed her gently taking her sweet time before pulling away. Laura giggled when they finally did pull apart and Carmilla only smiled wider.

“This is really nice,” Laura said without taking her eyes off Carmilla.

“It is. And I have something for you,” Carmilla said taking the opportunity she saw arising.

“You do?”

Carmilla nodded in response and unzipped the duffel bag that was resting next to her on the bench. Laura watched as she pulled out an intricately designed wooden box of a fair size and held it out to the younger girl. Laura took it anxiously but noticed that Carmilla’s hand were shaking and gave her a smile. She put it on her lap and traced the geometric shapes carved on the top. It was a stunning design in her opinion.

“Open it,” Carmilla nudged Laura.

Laura slowly opened the box letting her mouth immediately drop open at the sight before in. Inside the box was not only a polaroid camera but also a small DSLR camera.

“Carm,” Laura whispered still in shock.

“We couldn’t visit somewhere this beautiful and not get pictures to document it,” Carmilla says in her defense. “There’s...uh...there’s more.”

“What else could there be?” Laura asks in complete disbelief. Laura takes out the polaroid camera and immediately turns it on Carmilla and snaps a picture before Carmilla can even react. The picture prints and Carmilla snatches is from the camera right away. “Hey, give that back.”

“I want to see,” Carmilla says fighting her off like a child. Laura gives up and lets her look at the candid photo. “I actually really like it.”

Laura takes the photo back from her and smiles at it. It really is a pretty good photograph of her. She’s smiling and you can just see the love in her eyes. Laura gently places the photo in the box and notices the other pieces of paper underneath the other camera. She hands both cameras over to Carmilla who holds them while the younger girl picks up the pieces of paper at the very bottom of the box. Before Laura turns them over Carmilla has put the DSLR camera back into the box and snaps a picture of Laura with the polaroid camera.

“Carm, what are these?”

“Plane tickets to New York, London, and Munich,” Carmilla states simply. She looks over the polaroid of the younger girls and smiles at it before placing it into the box.

“What?” Laura asks still shocked by it.

“I may have planned a big summer vacation for us. I asked for your dad’s permission and everything. He’s joining us on our two weeks in London. But it’s just the two of us for New York and Munich. We’re staying in each place for 2 weeks. So you’ll have time with your dad at the beginning of summer before we go away and then in the middle of the trips and then for a couple weeks after Munich before school starts back up in the fall,” Carmilla clarifies throwing out every detail she can think is pertinent right now.

“Carm,” Laura says but stops. She can’t trust her words right now.

“Please, say something more than just one word,” Carmilla stumbles out her words before she even knows what she’s saying. Laura notices Carmilla’s unsureness and pulls her in for a deep kiss.

“I love it, Carm. It’s just a shock. Thank you so, so much,” Laura says with tears pricking at her eyes. They’re happy tears of course.

“Anything for you, Laura,” Carmilla says before the younger girl pulls her into a strong hug.

/ /

Carmilla and Laura sit on the bench for another hour before they even consider leaving. They ask a stranger to take a couple polaroids for them which they kindly do and return the camera and polaroids with a smile and a thumbs up. One of them is just a standard photo in the middle of the bridge with both of them smiling at the camera. In the second Laura kisses Carmilla’s cheek. In the third Carmilla is kissing Laura. And the fourth is a candid photo of them laughing and smiling at one another. They didn’t know he was taking the fourth photo at all but love it the most. The polaroids are added to the ever growing collection in the box.

They stop for an early dinner at a restaurant on the way back to the car. They talk about the plans for the summer and where they are staying in each city. Laura is impressed with how much Carmilla has planned and to the extent that she’d gone to plan out a summer for the both of them. She was impressed that she asked her dad for permission but then again Carmilla is extremely old fashioned. Laura’s dad joining them for two weeks in London was something that she really liked because they had never travelled far when Laura was growing up. This summer was going to be an experience for sure and she wouldn’t want to do it with anyone but Carmilla.

After dinner they wander the streets until finally making it back to the car. They both climbed into the car smiling and laughing at the people who scowled at them on the way back to the car. Laura has to admit that maybe stopping to make out a couple of times wasn’t their best idea but it was totally worth it in her mind. Anything involving Carmilla is totally worth it.

 

When you get to the end and it’s describing a beautiful scene...check it out here

<https://www.google.com/maps/@45.325634,14.446611,3a,75y,29.93h,74.55t/data=!3m5!1e1!3m3!1sd1fsTjyXvS4AAAQWkAUJIQ!2e0!3e11>

Also when you get to the end this was along the lines of what the top of the box was imagined to look like…

<http://farm6.static.flickr.com/5586/15017261336_15f920e39d.jpg>

******  
**

**Author's Note:**

> Thanks for reading and such. Hope you enjoyed it and definitely check the first link for sure. I wish I could go there. And on that note sorry for any possible inaccuracies with geographical things. 
> 
> Also the title does in fact come from Cherry Wine (live) by Hozier it has the right vibe.


End file.
